The Legal Aid Council has visited the new Custodial Center in Keffi to provide inmates with free representation in Courts within Nasarawa State.
This followed the permission from the Attorney General of Nasarawa State, Mohammed Abdullahi after due consultation and one year of approval for the council to visit the Centre within the state without hitches on monthly basis.
The inmates’ offences range from culpable homicide, conspiracy and armed robbery, criminal conspiracy, and possession of firearms, banditry and kidnapping, criminal intimidation and having stolen chicken.
The inmates are in the age bracket of 18-35.
The Legal Aid Council under the leadership of Aliyu Abubakar said that “the Council remains the official voice of the indigent citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Abubakar said; “This is a situation that calls for concern. The Custodial centre has about 866 inmates both convicted and awaiting trials and an indication that the crime rate in Nigeria continues to soar high despite the effort of the Nigerian Government and the relevant stakeholders to see that crime in our Nation is curtailed to the barest minimum.”
He however said that the encouraging thing in Nigeria’s Custodial centres seen from Keffi was the efforts of the Nigerian Government in establishing the National Open University centres in the various Custodial centres.
The Welfare Officer of the Centre, Mr Garba Rabiu, said that an online school was established in the year 2012, with just 2 inmates as students, but presently they have 122 students out of them 11 will be graduating soon.
He said; “The courses the centre run in both BSc, MSc and PHD include criminology and Security Studies, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, Early Childhood Education, and Health Education. Others Entrepreneur and Business Studies, Political Science, Computer Science, Public Health, Tourism, Business Administration and Public Administration.
“The centre is well equipped with computers since it is an online course with visiting lecturers once in a while. Enrollment into the centre is open to both convicted inmates and awaiting trials.
“Mr Chinedu Emmanuel has finished his jail term on fraud and about rounding up his PHD programme on business administration,” he said.
Rabiu noted that the challenges facing the Custodial centre include a lack of printers, generators, photocopiers etc.
The Deputy Controller of the Centre, Ezekiel Kaga was commended for the level of neatness within the premises and the robust outlook of the inmates
Mercy Chukwudiebere
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